OARS funding Economics

The program focuses on areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. It seeks to increase the Department's intellectual capital in the social sciences and improve its ability to address future challenges and build bridges between the Department and the social science community. Minerva brings together universities, research institutions, and individual scholars and supports multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific topic areas determined by the Department of Defense. The Minerva Research Initiative aims to promote research in specific areas of social science and to promote a candid and constructive relationship between DoD and the social science academic community.

USAID would like to partner with the private sector, education and research institutions (and organizations working with them) towards improving food security in Ethiopia. This initiative will be used to identify and test innovations that produce cost effective and scalable solutions to addressing the problems Ethiopian households face with regards to food insecurity. The overall objective of this effort is to find ways to accelerate and reduce food insecurity and malnutrition across Ethiopia

USAID/Middle East is making a special call for the submission of Concept Papers focused on the Middle East Water Security Initiative (MWSI). The goal of the MWSI is to improve sustainable, long-term access to water for up to 20 million people living in the Middle East. The MWSI will target Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank/Gaza, and Yemen and promote sharing of best practices and lessons learned among the five participating countries. To achieve its bold but doable goal, MWSI will engage both international and local actors from the private sector, civil society, public sector, and other organizations to (a) support dynamic young entrepreneurs, researchers, and consumers with opportunities to develop, test, scale-up and market "water-smart" technologies; and (b) increase awareness of and local ability to address water security challenges in the Middle East through behavior change and advocacy campaigns.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting applications for Round 14 of its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, an accelerated grant program that encourages bold approaches aimed at improving the lives of the world's poorest people. Anyone - students, scientists, entrepreneurs - with a transformative idea is invited to apply.

The Center for Cultural Diplomacy Studies (of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy) offers educational and professional development opportunities for individuals interested in pursuing further education and careers in academia, diplomacy, government, and/or the private sector. The CCDS focuses in particular on exploring the  balance between hard and soft power, the process of globalization in an interdependent world, international economics & business multiculturalism, intercultural dialogue & exchange, human rights, religion, and the ability for culturally based initiatives to further mutual understanding and in turn to foster global peace and stability.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R21 applications is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R03 applications encourages small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. The R03 activity code supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology. In no cases, should research involving animals be proposed.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage projects to generate fundamental knowledge of affective processes. Basic affective science projects should have key downstream consequences for single (e.g., genetic testing consent) and multiple (e.g., adherence to oral chemotherapy regimen) event decisions and behaviors across the cancer prevention and control continuum. The FOA is expected to encourage scientific disciplines that have not traditionally conducted cancer research such as affective and cognitive neuroscience, decision science, and consumer science to elucidate perplexing and understudied problems in basic affective and decision sciences with promise of having downstream implications for cancer prevention and control science.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R01 applications solicits empirical, hypothesis-driven, confirmatory research and modeling approaches. Exploratory, descriptive or hypothesis-generating research are more appropriate for the complementary FOAs using the R21 or R03 mechanisms. In no cases, should research involving animals be proposed.

One of the oldest foundations in the United States, the Russell Sage Foundation was established by  Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for "the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States." In pursuit of that mission, the foundation now dedicates itself to strengthening the methods, data, knowledge, and theoretical core of the social sciences as a means of diagnosing social problems and improving social policies. The foundation's program on Social Inequality supports research on the social, economic, political, and labor market consequences of rising economic inequality in the United States. The program seeks Letters of Inquiry for investigator-initiated research projects that will broaden  understanding of the causes and consequences of rising economic inequalities. Priority will be given to projects that use innovative data or methodologies to address important questions related to inequality.

The Russell Sage Foundation's program on the Future of Work supports research on the causes and consequences of changes in the quality of jobs for less- and moderately-skilled workers in the United States. We seek research proposals that will broaden our understanding of the role of changes in employer practices, the nature of the labor market and public policies on the employment, earnings, and the quality of jobs of American workers. We are especially interested in funding analyses of original qualitative and quantitative data sources, and novel uses of existing sources of data to address important questions about the interplay of market and non-market forces in shaping the wellbeing of workers, today and in the future.

The purpose of the Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25) is to attract to NIH-relevant research those investigators whose quantitative science and engineering research has thus far not been focused primarily on questions of health and disease. The K25 award will provide support and protected time for a period of supervised study and research for productive professionals with quantitative (e.g., mathematics, statistics, economics, computer science, imaging science, informatics, physics, chemistry) and engineering backgrounds to integrate their expertise with NIH-relevant research. 

The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS) seeks grant proposals for projects aimed at promoting an understanding of the historic relationship between the United States and Austria in the fields of history, politics, economics, law and cultural studies. Grants may include support for related lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences, and documentaries. Grants for salary replacement will not be considered. Grants will not exceed $25,000 unless a compelling case is made for a larger grant. Grant applications must be submitted by March 31, 2014. Applicants will be notified of the result of their application in July 2014. Grants will be distributed on or before September 1, 2014. A final report will be due within ninety days after the completion date of the award period.

Applicants may propose multiple studies. Funding through this cooperative agreement must only be used to fund impact evaluation design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination and must not be used to fund projects or interventions. Proposed impact evaluations must: 1) provide evidence that will be relevant to informing the design and effectiveness of a project or government policy that has direct or indirect effects on child labor or forced labor; 2) utilize partnerships between researchers, contractors, and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local organizations in the country where the proposed impact evaluation will take place; 3) ensure that impact evaluation results will be available within the time-period of the cooperative agreement; 4) build the evidence base on child labor or forced labor in OCFT's intervention areas and/or outcomes of interest; 5) test interventions or combinations of interventions; 6) examine interventions that are relevant and promising; 7) ensure that study designs, surveys, and analysis conform to international and national definitions and standards on child labor and forced labor; and 8) use RCT designs.

This fall, OARS will host a series of brown-bag workshops on navigating the NSF proposal process.  Workshops will be held select Tuesdays from noon to 1:00pm in Pearson 208.  You are welcome to attend any or all of the sessions.  Click through for dates and registration information.

As part of NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) activity, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure seek to enable research communities to develop visions, teams, and capabilities dedicated to creating new, large-scale, next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research for the SBE and EHR areas of research.  Successful proposals will outline activities that will have significant impacts across multiple fields by enabling new types of data-intensive research.  Investigators should think broadly and create a vision that extends intellectually across multiple disciplines and that includes--but is not limited to--the SBE or EHR areas of research.

The National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), and the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) award grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research. These grants provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake significant data-gathering projects and to conduct field research in settings away from their campus that would not otherwise be possible. Proposals are judged on the basis of their scientific merit, including the theoretical importance of the research question and the appropriateness of the proposed data and methodology to be used in addressing the question. In an effort to improve the quality of dissertation research, many programs in both BCS and SES, the Research on Science and Technology Surveys and Statistics program within NCSES, and the Science of Science and Innovation Policy program in SMA accept doctoral dissertation improvement grant proposals. Requirements vary across programs, so proposers are advised to consult the relevant program's webpage for specific information and contact the program director if necessary.

We are pleased to announce that the new OARS website is up and running (although the new Research Compliance and Undergraduate Research sections are still in development).   If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, we hope you will soon.  Once you've visited, we'd be grateful if you'd give us five minutes of your time to let us know how we're doing by completing a brief eight-question survey at https://miamioh.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_erhRsEFwwWVP6m1 Finally, don't forget to update any bookmarks you may have to material on our old website!

Center will define the needs and develop strategies that can help seniors, especially women, and their families identify and prevent fraud or elder financial exploitation and enhance the potential for maintaining independence. In partnership with AoA, the Center will design and execute objectives to support the incorporation of the concepts of basic financial and retirement planning into the fabric of Older Americans Act Programs. Center activities will incorporate the latest technology to generate and disseminate knowledge in appropriately packaged forms that can assist women, especially low-income women, women of color, and women with limited English-speaking proficiency to build their capacity to plan for, and to exercise, the most prudent options for their economic security in later life. The Center will serve as a national clearinghouse of tools and information on retirement planning and related financial materials, such as consumer protection and fraud prevention. It will tailor its activities and work products to meet the special needs of disadvantaged women and their families, including limited English-speaking individuals. The award will be made in the form of a cooperative agreement because AoA will be substantially involved in the development and execution of the activities conducted by the Center.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in chemistry, computational or evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences (including marine biology), physics, or a related field; Candidates must hold a tenure track (or equivalent) position at a college, university or other degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada;  Candidates must normally be no more than six years from completion of their most recent Ph.D. (or equivalent) as of the year of their nomination.  (That is, most recent Ph.D. must have been awarded on or after September 2007.)** While Fellows are expected to be at an early stage of their research careers, there should be strong evidence of independent research accomplishments. Candidates in all fields are normally below the rank of associate professor and do not hold tenure, but these are not strict requirements. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation welcomes nominations of all candidates who meet the traditional high standards of this program, and strongly encourages the participation of women and members of underrepresented minority groups.